Online Volunteer Bump
 

Today, I checked in for my flight from AUS-JFK (tomorrow morning) and was offered for volunteer bump online
They asked me to "Name my price" and they will select the people who offer the lowest price. They will let me select an alternative flight at gate agent tomorrow for possible option. This never happens to me and it seems like this online volunteer bump will work in favor of the airlines since

• You don't know how many people volunteer
• You tend to offer less if you want to volunteer
• They can control how much they want to offer

Anyone experiences the same thing?

The online offer is strictly to see who is interested in volunteering. First off, it is not always used. Second, if you are selected, my experience has been that everyone being VDBed was given the same voucher value, regardless of what they bid. The bids, I have heard, are also used to "rank" volunteers in a given order. I typically bid about $5 less than the normal amount I would expect to receive, if I am truly interested. If they can get volunteers at the gate to take less than your bid, then those persons get the VDB. Remember, YMMV.

Search term 'auction'. There's lots of comment regarding bidding but it's hard to get enough observations to nail down the parameters successfully. Maybe they continue to evolve it.

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/delta...g-auction.html

I've never actually seen the auction in action. I've been asked to bid online or at checkin, but the GA always offers a set amount to everyone and as far as I can tell doesn't use the bid list except to call people up and see if they are still interested.

If DL was smart they would reverse the procedure. When you checked in, you would get a message stating, "This flight is oversold. How much more are you willing to pay to keep your seat." Offer options like $10, $25, $50. Then the kettles unaware of IDB rules might bite at the extra cost which could then be used to offset the compensation for those who end up VDB. Heck they could even do this when the flight wasn't oversold; help with those huge targets for extra fee revenue.

Can you ask for an earlier flight, especially if you're booked on a late/last one?

Are you crazy? Obviously, this tactic is illegal. The law requires the airlines to first seek volunteers and if none can be found, to IDB passengers and pay each a set amount of cash. You can't extort extra money from anyone in lieu of an IDB. :rolleyes:

I was being sarcastic. Apologies as I am prone to such posts.

Personally, I thought you had inside information on one of the plans to generate that additional $1B in fees that DL wants to generate!;)

I've negotiated it once and had it offered to me once when I couldn't take advantage of it.

So, ask away! It might happen.

I can easily envision this - it's that "guarantee you won't be bumped package and it comes with free carry-on luggage" - Keep rising!


In a way (somewhat less sinister IMO) this is exactly what the Economy Comfort program and preferred seating is; kettles without status book a flight and are unable to be accommodated in adjacent seats without paying to "upgrade" to EC - or at least this is how it appears. A panic ensues within a pax's mind and those who like to make plans rationalize a few more $$$ for peace of mind of having things set. I would venture to guess that more often than not families booking EC could care less about extra legroom and instead just want seats adjacent to one another.

More often than not they CAN actually be seated adjacent to one another either in unclaimed preferred seating that won't get booked up or in the residual Y empties that arise FC upgrades especially if willing to do OLCI right at T-24. Pretty smart business and not that far off from what you describe especially if those seats that are held back for status folks are made to opaquely seem as occupied.

a twist
 

I have never been notified of a possible bump when doing OLCI; however, I sometimes get an offer to switch to other flights when checking in at an airport kiosk. I guess they are just trying to bleed traffic off overbooked flights.

Don't the fares Y0/F0, and/or DM status, do this?

DL might well give you the earlier flight with no fee, but it's certainly not going to pay VDB before it has to. In other words, you would not be a VDB, you would simply be a fee-free flight change.

Right now, the flight may be overbooked, but that doesn't mean that all booked pax will actually show up at the gate ontime:

1. People may cancel between now and departue.
2. People may misconnect (not hugely likely @ AUS).
3. People may simply miss the flight

And, others may arrive past the deadline and therefore get bumped without any IDB due.

I can't pin this down, but it's my deep suspicion that DL uses the pre-departure VDB reverse auction as a means of gathering data about what people will accept rather than as an actual auction on a flight-by-flight basis.

In theory, if 95% of people on TCONs say they will take $50, that's what you will see as the VDB offer going forward.

I think the main problem with the online bid system is it still has to get sorted out by the GA. I'm assuming the system is using pace (both purchase and check-in) versus to the rev management system model to predict if the wash is going to match the model.

I think they would be better served to re-issue tickets on the spot for a certain portion of pax. In particular when there is room on earlier flights.

Then again, I may be giving RM at DL more credit than they deserve, and the online prompting is based on far simpler metrics.